Improvement in clasps for fastening packages



J. H. WEAVER. Clasp for Fastening Packages.

No. 218,652. Patented Aug. 19,1879.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES H. WEAVER, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

IMPROVEMENT IN CLASPS FOR FASTENING PACKAGES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 218,652, dated August 19, 1879 applicationfiled November 16, 1878.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES H. WEAVER, of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Clasps for Fastening Packages, of which the following, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification.

1n the drawings, Figure 1 is a side view of a clasp embodying my invention; Fig. 2, a like representation, showing the clasping ends separated; Fig. 3, a section in the plane of the line as m, Fig. 1; Fig. 4, a side view of apacket or envelope embodying my improved clasp in its construction, and Fig. 5 aperspective of the same unclasped.

Like letters of reference indicate like parts.

A and A represent strips of paper. One end of one strip,A, for example, terminates in the contracted tongue at, in which are cut the short longitudinally-extending slits a a and the comparatively long cross-slit a, whereby a short tongue, a, is formed, extending back from the outer end or edge of the tongue 0!, as shown. Somewhat back from one end of the strip or piece A, I cut the two cross-slits b b, forming a loop, 12, through which I pass the tongue at until the tongue 00 may be slightly raised, when I draw back the tongue to until the tongue 00 overlaps the loop I), as is clearly shown in Fig. 1.

It will be perceived fromthe foregoing description, and from reference to the drawings, that the two parts or strips A and A will thus be clasped or fastened together, and that they may be easily detached or disconnected from each other by simply pushing the tongue a forward until the end of the tongue 11 reaches the forward slit, 1), when the tongues a and a may be drawn out from underneath the loop I). If the under faces of the parts A and A be brushed with mucilage near the ends, it is evident that these parts may be applied to a packet, package, or bundle, to bind "the contents of the latter together, and that the packet may be thereafter opened by merely unclasping the parts A and A, in the manner described, thus admitting of the contents of the package being examined without injury to the wrapper, and also admitting of the package being again fastened with facility.

The parts A and A may, instead of being separate and independent parts, form a part of a packet or envelope, as represented in Figs. 3 and 4; and in packets intended to contain fine or powdered contents, the loop 12 should consist of a strip applied thereto, instead of being formed by means of the slits b b, so that the contents, however fine, will not be liable to escape.

The packet or envelope containing, as afeature of its construction, my improved clasp may be made in any suitable way which will admit of the tongue a being passed underneath and the tongue a! over a loop, b, thus preventing the tongues from danger of being accidentally disconnected from theloop, and holding all the parts down closely together.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

A clasp or fastening consisting of the two independent and separable parts A and A, one terminating in a tongue, a, having therein the inwardly-extending supplemental tongue a, and the other having the loop b, adapted to receive and engage the said tongues, substantially as and for the purposes specified.

JAMES H. WEAVER.

Witnesses MARTIN BEEM, D. F. FLANNERY. 

